Tag: chanting

Like a crying baby

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Your language will go to your mother. Jiva Goswami Prabhu has given this hope. You may be a three-month-old baby, or a one-month-old baby, but through your expression of crying or something your mother will understand whether you are hungry or not.

Question: How can we know whether we are successful or not?
Srila Gurudev: When you eat how do you know that your hunger has gone? When you take food satisfaction will come and your hunger will go. This is in Srimad Bhagavatam.
bhaktiḥ pareśānubhavo viraktir
anyatra chaiṣa trika eka-kālaḥ
prapadyamānasya yathāśnataḥ syus
tuṣṭiḥ puṣṭiḥ kṣud-apāyo ’nu-ghāsam
Satisfaction will come, you will become stronger, and your attachment with the material world will disappear. You can stay within everything, but you will have no attachment.
Vedavyas has given so much to us [chuckles]. Rsi Vedavyas composed the eighteen Puranas, the Mahabharata, the Vedanta-darshan, and so on. He presented so much knowledge in this material world, and he also gave the gist of that knowledge in the Bhagavad-gita and Srimad Bhagavatam. More recently Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu found the book Brahma-samhita: it is very short but the whole conception of Mahaprabhu is there in gist form. This will all give some association to us; when direct sadhu-sanga is not possible, the holy books will give us some association. We are so fortunate that we have got so many books.
Question: What is the meaning of “without offence”?
Srila Gurudev: Ten kinds of offences are written in the scriptures, in the Padma-purana. When we are giving Harinam-diksa, initiation, to someone then we are giving them a book listing those offences. Everyone should try to memorise and avoid those offences, and chant the Holy Name.
Offences means obstacles. Srila Jiva Goswami Prabhu, who is the next-generation-leader of the Goswamis, has given a very hopeful assurance, quoting from the scriptures,
nāmāparādha-yuktānāṁ nāmāny eva haranty agham
(Padma-purāṇa: Svarga-khaṇḍa, 48.49)
Harinam will remove the offences of whoever is making Namaparadha, offences to Harinam. For that reason the scriptures say, “Try to chant continuously as much as possible.” We are saying sixteen rounds, or four rounds, or sixty-four rounds, but actually the scriptures say, “Chant as much as possible, with beads or without beads.”
Your language will go to your mother. Jiva Goswami Prabhu has given this hope. You may be a three-month-old baby, or a one-month-old baby, but through your expression of crying or something your mother will understand whether you are hungry or not. If a baby is crying the mother will understand, “Now she is hungry or he is hungry. Or, his belly is double full, and for that he is crying.” The feelings of the mother always give nourishment to the baby, and the Lord is also like that. When we chant the Holy Name of the Lord, He will understand that we cannot avoid offences, and so He Himself will give His divine help to us, and our offences will go through chanting.
This post is a continuation of Cleaning the mirror of the heart.
Spoken by Srila Gurudev in Italy, September 2000, during his Sixteenth World Tour.
Further reading:
Srila Gurudev’s poetic rendering of the ten offences

Cleaning the mirror of the heart

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Every moment will be joyful in your life. Dedication to the Lord and chanting the Holy Name, the nondifferent form of the Lord, can give us all auspiciousness.

Question: I would really like to hear about Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, and how we can serve him.
Srila Gurudev: Mahaprabhu first indicated to beginners that you will get all the benefit of your spiritual life if you can chant the mahamantra properly. Your mind is like a mirror covered with dust, and through chanting that dust will be removed and you will see your true form. The suffering that we experience from so many things in this material world will also reduce and finally go out.
cheto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ
śreyaḥ-kairava-chandrikā-vitaraṇaṁ
Through your chanting feelings of God will reveal in your heart, you will see your beautiful divine form, and your mood of service will give such happy light in your spiritual environment. You will get very close association with your Lord, like the feelings between a husband and wife.
cheto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ
śreyaḥ-kairava-chandrikā-vitaraṇaṁ vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam
ānandāmbudhi-vardhanaṁ
When that divine form of the Lord as Harinam reveals within your heart then automatically joy will come, and every moment when you are chanting the Holy Name, the feeling of God’s association will come to you.
prati-padaṁ pūrṇāmṛtāsvādanaṁ
Every moment will be joyful in your life. Dedication to the Lord and chanting the Holy Name, the nondifferent form of the Lord, can give us all auspiciousness.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu advised the conditioned souls in this way.
prabhu kahe—kahilāṅ ei mahāmantra
Of all mantras this is the best mantram in this age of Kali-yuga. Other practising processes will not be so fruitful. Meditation, chanting, and congregational chanting of this mantram, and service to this mantram, will give all good results to us.
Then if we want to satisfy Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu we will first try to chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra, and if we can do that continuously that is very good.

Be humble, be tolerant and give honour to others

Mahaprabhu gave eight verses as advice for the conditioned souls, and in the third verse He explained how attachment, love, and affection will grow for chanting the Holy Name. He gave this advice: if you can be humble, be tolerant, and give honour to others then you will be worry-free from your circumstances.
You can believe and you can live within the faithful plane. Faith is necessary. That is the first basis of this conception. Not only in the line of Krishna consciousness, but the first advice of all religious conceptions is, “Be faithful”. At first, beginners may not be able to maintain their faith because they are not seeing anything and not getting anything in their hand. They do not have practical knowledge and experience. For that reason strong faith will not come immediately. But through realisation, through association, through hearing, through reading, faith will become more and more strong. In different ways our faith will grow more and more, but the scriptures say that association is the best. If good association is not available then we can practise through reading the books, chanting the Holy Name, hearing from an expert, and so on.
We must try to realise our previous activity, our present spiritual situation, and our future prospect. It is necessary to take advantage of the value of the present time.
Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu will be happy if we follow His directive to chant the mahamantra without offence. The mahamantra Himself is Radha and Krishna. Both Their Names are present within this mantra with a calling mood. Even within some processes in this material world we can see that sound can take form: now when you are talking to someone by telephone it is also possible to see their form, their mood, and so on. So, if we can chant properly They will reveal in our heart. We cannot say that it will happen immediately but anyone can get it, and if someone is sincere with their practice they will get some feelings from the beginning.

When Mahaprabhu said that there is no alternative other than chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, then it is not necessary to go left or right or anywhere else. Be steady, be faithful, and try, and success must come to you.

We are trying but not properly trying, because we are always mixing with material things, and it is natural. If we can chant without offence then proper purification will come and we must be benefitted through that. Time is a factor: it is in front of me and must give me some disturbance. But if we can see the eternal time that is nothing by comparison.
When Mahaprabhu said that there is no alternative other than chanting the Holy Name of the Lord, then it is not necessary to go left or right or anywhere else. Be steady, be faithful, and try, and success must come to you. And because “Hare Krishna” is Radha–Krishna then if They reveal in your heart you will automatically join with the Pastimes of Krishna-lila. That is the gift of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu: Krishna-prema, love for Krishna, affection for Krishna, and service for Krishna. When it will reveal in your heart then Krishna will also reveal with that mood.
In this way, many things in many places have given us the clue of practising life. But at first beginners must try with faith.
Srila Gurudev speaking in Italy, September 2000, during his Sixteenth World Tour.

Reference

The mahamantra:
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare

Related reading

Discussion of Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu’s Siksastakam verses in Revealed Truth
Article on the mahamantra

The easiest thing

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Krishna consciousness is a very easy thing because it is everybody’s religion. It is not the religion of Hindus, it is not the religion of Muslims, or Christians, or Buddhists, or followers of the Shankar sampradāya. They have some sampradāya [group], but we do not really have a sampradāya. Krishna consciousness is the religion of the jīva-soul.
jīvera ‘svarūpa haya—kṛṣṇera ‘nitya-dāsa’
kṛṣṇera ‘taṭasthā-śakti’, ‘bhedābheda-prakāśa’
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 20.108)
[“The soul is by nature an eternal servant of Krishna. The soul is Krishna’s tatastha-sakti (marginal potency); a manifestation both distinct and non-distinct from Krishna.”]
kṛṣṇa bhuli’ sei jīva anādi-bahirmukha
ataeva māyā tāre deya saṁsāra-duḥkha
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 20.117)
[“When souls outside the realm of time and space turn away from Krishna and forget Him, Maya subjects them to the various miseries of worldly existence.”]
And how can we get relief from this environment? That has also been given by Kavirāj Goswāmī very clearly and in a very simple way:
brahmāṇḍa bhramite kona bhāgyavān jīva
guru-kṛṣṇa-prasāde pāya bhakti-latā-bīja
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 19.151)
[“While wandering throughout the world, a fortunate soul obtains the seed of the creeper of devotion (faith) by the mercy of Guru and Krishna.”]
mālī hañā kare sei bīja āropaṇa
śravaṇa-kīrtana-jale karaye sechana
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 19.152)
[“When a person receives the seed of devotional service, he should take care of it by becoming a gardener and sowing the seed in his heart. If he waters the seed gradually by the process of śravaṇ and kīrtan [hearing and chanting], the seed will begin to sprout.”]
upajiyā bāḍe latā ‘brahmāṇḍa’ bhedi’ yāya
‘virajā’, ‘brahmaloka’ bhedi’ ‘paravyoma’ pāya
tabe yāya tad upari ‘goloka-vṛndavāna’
‘kṛṣṇa-charaṇa’-kalpa-vṛkṣe kare ārohaṇa
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 19.153–4)
[“As one waters the bhakti-latā-bīja, the seed sprouts, and the creeper gradually grows to the point where it penetrates the walls of this universe and goes beyond the Virajā River, lying between the spiritual world and the material world. It attains brahma-loka, the Brahman effulgence, and penetrating through that stratum, it reaches the spiritual sky and the spiritual planet Goloka Vṛndāvan.
“Being situated in one’s heart and being watered by śravaṇ-kīrtan, the bhakti creeper grows more and more. In this way it attains the shelter of the desire tree of the lotus feet of Kṛṣṇa, who is eternally situated in the planet known as Goloka Vṛndāvan, in the topmost region of the spiritual sky.”]

We must search for Śrī Krishna, and it will easily come to us. And who is Krishna? If we go to the sādhu, they will say and show us Reality the Beautiful.

That is all. It is a very easy thing: it is only necessary to have mercy from Sādhu, Guru, and Vaiṣṇava. Through that we will get some sukṛti, and sukṛti means our fortune-maker. We must search for Śrī Krishna, and it will easily come to us. And who is Krishna? If we go to the sādhu, they will say and show us Reality the Beautiful.
You will see God consciousness all over the world, everywhere, under different names. But who is the Supreme Personality of Godhead? That is found in Krishna consciousness. Krishna is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, and why? That explanation is very simply given in the scriptures. Then we can understand easily that Krishna-bhajan, worship of Krishna, and practising Krishna consciousness is our life’s goal. That has been given by Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāj and Śrīla Guru Mahārāj, and now the day has come when it is continuing [in this world] in a non-stopping way. Maybe somewhere some disturbance comes, and it will come, because that is the nature of this mundane world.  We are always living within a disturbing environment, and so it must be with us, but we shall cross over all  disturbance and proceed to our destiny, and that destiny is, Kṛṣṇa-charaṇa’-kalpa-vṛkṣe kare ārohaṇa, service to Krishna.

Leaving the plane of exploitation, and leaving the plane of renunciation, we must try to establish ourselves in the plane of dedication.

Leaving the plane of exploitation, and leaving the plane of renunciation, we must try to establish ourselves in the plane of dedication. And dedication to whom? We shall surrender to whom? That is the Supreme Personality of Godhead, that is Krishna. Śrīmad Bhāgavat said clearly, Kṛṣṇas tu Bhagavān Svayam. In Brahma-saṁhitā it is told,
īśvaraḥ paramaḥ kṛṣṇaḥ sachchidānanda-vigrahaḥ
anādir ādir govindaḥ sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam
(Śrī Brahma-saṁhitā: 5.1)
We must worship Krishna, because Krishna is Īśvar [the Lord], and He is Parameśvar [the Supreme Lord], and He is sach-chid-ānanda-vigraha, the eternal form of consciousness and bliss. Anādir ādiḥ: He is the beginning and beginningless. His name is Govinda, and sarva-kāraṇa-kāraṇam, He is the cause of all causes. We can see this very clearly in Brahma-saṁhitā.
With the mood of devotion that is within us and within everybody’s heart we can worship Kṛṣṇa very easily. We have affection, love, and beauty, and through that we can worship Him. Krishna is the ocean of nectar and when we come in touch with Him we will get everything. This is Mahāprabhu’s conception and Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāj and Śrīla Guru Mahārāj, both world Gurus, preached this conception in this world.
Mahāprabhu Chaitanyadev appeared in this world five hundred years ago with His paraphernalia and associates, and through Śrīman Mahāprabhu’s associates the six goswāmīs we have got that Krishna conception, and that is the supreme conception of our lives. Everywhere there is some fearful environment, but in Krishna consciousness the  environment always gives us ecstasy, hope, and happiness. That is the wealth of Krishna consciousness.
kṛṣṇa-bhakti-rasa-bhāvitā-matiḥ
krīyatām yadi kuto ‘pi labhyate
tatra laulyam api mūlyam ekalaṁ
janma-koṭi-sukṛtair na labhyate
(Śrī Chaitanya-charitāmṛta: Madhya-līlā, 8.70)
[“Pure devotional service in Krishna consciousness cannot be had even by pious activity in hundreds and thousands of lives. It can be attained only by paying one price — that is, intense greed to obtain it. If it is available somewhere, one must purchase it without delay.”]

The Vedic knowledge differentiates in many ways, but in Krishna consciousness everybody has the same position

Everywhere there are some rules, regulations, and restrictions, many things which discourage us. In the Vedic knowledge also we can see many things to discourage us: ladies cannot worship the deity, and there are many different types of positions for gents: brāhmaṇ [priestly class], kṣatriya [warrior class], vaiśya [agricultural/trading class], śūdra [worker class], and also brahmachārī [celibate students], vānaprastha [persons retired from worldly work], sannyasī [renunciants], gṛhastha [a person who engages in the duties of family and worldly work]. The Vedic knowledge differentiates in many ways, but in Krishna consciousness everybody has the same position: if they have attraction and hankering for Krishna consciousness then they can enter into that world. There is love, beauty, ecstasy, charm, and laulyam, hankering, is the only wealth. You can buy that only through your hankering.
This is Mahāprabhu’s conception, and we have got that through our Guru Mahārāj and Śrīla Swāmī Mahārāj, and now all over the world people are chanting the Hare Krishna mahāmantra. The Hare Krishna mahāmantra is nondifferent with Krishna, and if we can chant the Hare Krishna mahāmantra, we will get everything that we need and that we want in our lives. We will get everything.
Spoken by Srila Gurudev on 16 July 1992, in Miami, USA

Chanting, chanting, chanting

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Indra’s illusion

There is a story about Lord Indra: once he was cursed by some rishis and he got a hog’s body. He was enjoying in this material world, and then the curse finished and Lord Brahma came and said, “Oh Indra, come back to your abode.” Because of the illusory environment Indra had forgotten everything and was thinking, “I am a hog father and I have so many of my children and grandchildren here, so why shall I go there? And who is this man with such a big beard who is telling me what to do?” And he wanted to hit Brahma. Then Brahma thought, “Oh, he is completely in illusion” so he threw  all his children and grandchildren in the pond and told Indra “You also jump here and you will leave your body.” But Indra would not do that. Finally he and his wife were going to run away, but then Brahma took his wife and threw her. Then Indra thought, “Oh what happened, now I have nothing.” Then he gave some hearing to Brahma, “What you are telling, nonsense man?” Brahma said, “You are Indra, you have an abode in heaven and you are the master of heaven. You come here. Why are you suffering? Now your curse has finished. You jump in the pond and then you will see what you get.” Then Indra thought, “What shall I do with this body? My wife has gone and everything is gone, so I shall jump.” He jumped in the pond and left his body and saw his own form as Indra. Then he thought, “Oh ho I was in such a bad situation” and he paid dandavat to Brahma and said, “Prabhu, you rescued me. Please take my obeisances.” And Brahma said, “If you like you can take some of your children.” Indra said, “Don’t make me shy. I am very shy.”
Srila-Govinda-Maharaj-Initiation-Russia

“Please appear, please give your mercy”

In this way,
rasa-varjaṁ raso ’py asya, paraṁ dṛṣṭvā nivartate
(2.59)
It is stated in Srimad Bhagavad-Gita by Krishna Himself, that when we get some real sense, when we get a connection with the transcendental world, then we will immediately feel that and we can immediately leave everything. Before that, it is necessary to do some sadhana. It will not be possible to chant the Holy Name without offence immediately. We will become habituated with chanting, chanting, chanting, chanting, and we will chant with the mood of calling, “He Hare, he Krishna, please appear, please give your mercy.” This is the calling mood, and we will not ask for anything.
nāmāparādha-yuktānāṁ nāmāny eva haranty agham
(Padma-purāṇa: Svarga-khaṇḍa, 48.49)

Whatever obstacles we have to chant will go through chanting and the Name will reveal in our heart. This is the prescription for the conditioned souls of this material world. Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu appeared for this as a yugavatar and bestowed His mercy through giving this mahamantra, and we are trying to follow in His footsteps.
040806-today-SGovM-japa-550xThis advice is for everyone, not only for this Vaisnava society. We can see some indication of chanting the Holy Name of the Lord in all religions. The Muslims are chanting  their Lord’s name, “Allah, Allah, Allah” and we have seen that they also do japa. The Christians also do japa. Everywhere they are chanting the Holy Name of the Lord. They know at least the transcendental vibration form of the Holy Name and they are chanting that, and it is very properly and efficiently revealed in this Vaisnava society. Vaisnava means, Visnur devata yasya sa Vaisnava: who is feeling that the Supreme Personality of Godhead is Krishna is a Vaisnava. He is not brahman, he is not sudra, he is not Australian, he is not American, he is not Indian, but he is a servitor of the Lord. That is his identity. He will chant the Hare Krishna mahamantra and he will get back his own identity.
Srila Gurudev, speaking in Byron Bay, Australia, 24 April 1999

The ray of joy

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Mahaprabhu said, “Why will you chant the mahamantra? We will chant because,
cheto-darpaṇa-mārjanaṁ bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇaṁ
We want to remove the dust of our mind and we want to see our own divine form, our transcendental form.
030702_puri_sgovm1
Bhava-mahā-dāvāgni-nirvāpaṇam: all inauspiciousness and difficulties will go. And, śreyaḥ-kairava-chandrikā: before the sun appears light comes in this world, and like that, before the Lord appears some light of the transcendent will come to us and we will feel what is day and what is night.
Mahaprabhu expressed this, and then vidyā-vadhū-jīvanam: finally Mahaprabhu said you will get service to the Lord in the transcendental world. Without feeling anything you will suddenly see, “I am there.” It is like our death: when death happens that man cannot understand, “I am going to die.” He may feel it is his deathbed but when he leaves the body he cannot feel it. He will see, “Oh ho, this is my body here and I am here.” Sometimes they try to go back inside the body but they cannot enter again. Our transcendental service connection will appear like that. Then we will be happy, and when we see our situation completely change we will see the ray of joy, the ray of sachidananda. Ananda, joy, ecstasy. We will try to go back quickly there and we will not wait.
Srila Gurudev, speaking in Byron Bay, Australia, 24 April 1999
 

“Gaurasundar sings in a sweet voice”

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Srila Gurudev singing Gay Gora madhur svare, in the year 1989.
Download mp3 audio.
[gāya gorā madhur svare
Gaurasundar sings in a sweet voice:]
“hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare” [1]
gṛhe thāka, vane thāka
sadā ‘hari’ bale’ ḍāka
sukhe duḥkhe bhulo nāka
vadane hari-nām kara re [2]
Stay at home, or stay in a forest, regardless, always call out ‘Hari!’ In happiness and in sadness, don’t forget: chant the Lord’s Name aloud.
māyā-jāle baddha ha’ye
āchha michhe kāja la’ye
ekhan-o chetana peye
rādhā-mādhav-nām bala re [3]
Bound in Māyā’s net, you work in vain. Now, while you are still conscious, chant ‘Rādhā-Mādhava’.
jīvana ha-ila śeṣa
nā bhajile hṛṣīkeśa
bhaktivinod-upadeśa
ek-bār nām-rase māta re [4]
Your life is ending, but you have not served Hṛṣīkeś. Bhakti Vinod advises: once relish His Name’s nectar.
(Śrīla Bhakti Vinod Ṭhākur)

Spiritual bearer

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We are only chanting the mahamantra with a  calling mood.
hare kṛṣṇa hare kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa kṛṣṇa hare hare
hare rāma hare rāma rāma rāma hare hare
This is called the mahamantra. It is not only the Tarak-brahma-nama [mantra for deliverance from the mundane], but of all mantram it is the best—that is the mahamantram. The Lord Himself is living within this mantram, and we will feel His presence when we chant this mahamantra without offence. There are ten kinds of offences we must avoid, and then it will reveal in our heart. This tongue, this mind, everything is material and it will not appear on a material tongue. Where He will appear will be transcendental, and so first through chanting  I want to make myself  a transcendental receiver.
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You see with the radio, television, etc. there is a receiver, and then the picture comes, sound comes, everything comes. Only some electronic things are inside there, but when they are set right then they can receive everything. I want to make myself as a good receiver. You have seen the power of ether. Here, within five minutes you can get an answer from India. If you push some button and make some question, then the signal will go there and within five minutes it will come back to you. And what is the bearer? The bearer is ether. We cannot see ether and we cannot feel it also, but we see that some action comes through ether, and it has been discovered by the scientists.
Ether is the super-bearer in this material world, and Harinam mahamantra, the nondifferent form of the Lord, is the spiritual bearer and will make me transcendental when He appears fully with me. He will make me transcendental and He Himself will dance in His nondifferent form. He will reveal in the heart and all inauspiciousness will go out.
Srila Gurudev speaking in Byron Bay, Australia, 24 April 1999

"Cooling like ten million moons"

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Srila Gurudev singing Nitai-pada-kamala, in the year 1990.
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nitāi-pada-kamala koṭī-chandra-suśītala
ye chhāyāya jagata juḍāya
hena nitāi vine bhāi rādhā-kṛṣṇa pāite nāi
dṛḍha kari’ dhara nitāira pāya [1]
Cooling like ten million moons, Nitāi’s lotus feet soothe the world with their shade. O brother! Without Nitāi, you cannot reach Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa. Firmly grasp Nitāi’s feet.
se sambandha nāhi yāra vṛthā janma gela tāra
sei paśu baḍa durāchāra
nitāi nā balila mukhe majila saṁsāra-sukhe
vidyā-kule ki karibe tāra [2]
The life of one who had no connection with Nitāi passed in vain. Such an animal is very wicked. What will learning (aristocratic birth) do for one who was immersed in worldly pleasures and never called aloud, ‘Nitāi’?
ahaṅkāre matta haiñā nitāi-pada pāsariyā
asatyere satya kari’ māni
nitāiyer karuṇā habe vraje rādhā-kṛṣṇa pābe
dhara nitāiyer charaṇ du’khāni [3]
Maddened with pride, forgetting Nitāi’s feet, I accept untruth as truth. When Nitāi bestows His mercy you will reach Rādhā-Kṛṣṇa in Vraja. Grasp Nitāi’s feet!
nitāiyer charaṇa satya tāhāra sevaka nitya
nitāi-pada sadā kara āśa
narottama baḍa duḥkhī nitāi more kara sukhī
rākha rāṅgā-charaṇera pāśa [4]
Nitāi’s feet are truth, and His servants are eternal. Always aspire for Nitāi’s feet. Narottam is very sad: “O Nitāi! Make me happy. Keep me beside your reddish feet.”
(Śrīla Narottam Dās Ṭhākur)

Sri Guru charana-padma

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Srila Gurudev singing Sri Guru charana-padma during the installation festival for Sri Sri Nitai Chaitanyadev, Sri Puri Dham, 1989.

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śrī guru charaṇa-padma kevala bhakati-sadma
vando muñi sāvadhāna mate
yāhāra prasāde bhāi e bhava tariyā yāi
kṛṣṇa-prāpti haya yāhā haite
[1] I carefully offer my obeisance to Śrī Guru’s lotus feet, which are the only abode of devotion. O brother! By his mercy we cross over this world and reach Kṛṣṇa.
guru-mukha-padma-vākya chitete kariyā aikya
āra nā kariha mane āśā
śrī guru-charaṇe rati sei se uttama-gati
ye prasāde pūre sarva āśā
[2] Make the teachings from Śrī Guru’s lotus mouth one with your heart, and do not desire anything else. Attachment to Śrī Guru’s feet is the best path. By his mercy all desires are fulfilled.
chakṣu-dāna dilā yei janme janme prabhu sei
divya-jñāna hṛde prakāśita
prema-bhakti yāhā haite avidyā vināśa yāte
vede gāya yāhāra charita
[3] He who gave me the gift of vision is my lord, birth after birth. He manifested divine knowledge in my heart. He gives prema-bhakti and destroys ignorance. The Vedas sing of his character.
śrī-guru karuṇā-sindhu adhama janāra bandhu
lokanātha lokera jīvana
hā hā prabhu kara dayā deha more pada-chhāyā
e adhama la-ila śaraṇa
[4] Śrī Guru is an ocean of mercy and the friend of the fallen. He is the lord and life of all people. O master! Be merciful. Give me the shade of your feet. This fallen soul has taken shelter of you.